What We Think: Court made the right choice on voucher issue

The Louisiana Supreme Court was right last week when it upheld a lower court decision that ruled funding the state's voucher program with money from the Minimum Foundation Program was unconstitutional. Taxpayer money dedicated to supporting the state's financially struggling public schools should not be diverted to private schools.

Unfortunately, the collateral damage of the decision could be the uncertain fate of about 5,000 students attending private schools through the voucher program. It is uncertain at this point where the funding will come from to make the final payment on this year's tuition or for next year's payments.

The state's high court took its decision a step further by ruling that the way the Legislature approved this year's MFP, the formula by which money is allocated per student to public schools, was also improper.

Now, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will have to reformulate the MFP.

The voucher program, part of Gov. Bobby Jindal's school reform plan, has been at the center of controversy since it was implemented last year. Teachers' groups have opposed it from the outset.

State Rep. Nancy Landry, R-Lafayette, a supporter of the voucher program, said she was disappointed that the court "interpreted public education to mean brick-and-mortar buildings," according to an article by Gannett Louisiana's capital bureau reporter Mike Hasten.

But the brick-and-mortar buildings that house public school students cost the same to maintain after the voucher student has left. And siphoning off MFP money leaves public schools with less for day-to-day operations, supplies and other necessities.

And that would have been another blow to already ailing schools.

Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White have said the program is not defeated, despite this setback. Jindal has promised to support the program through the state general fund; however, the House on Friday put together a budget that left no room for voucher payments - although there will be another chance to find funding when the bill goes to the Senate for debate.

But taxpayer money should not be used to fund private school tuition in any case.

It treads on the principal of a free public education. It also ventures across the line separating religious education from public education.

That principle has garnered support from an unlikely source. The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance and pastor of Northminster Church, a Monroe Baptist congregation, vowed to continue his opposition to the voucher program in Hasten's article, citing a concern for "religious liberty."

As the Jindal administration scrambles to find funding for the now penniless voucher program, perhaps the most upsetting aspect of the situation is that thousands of students were caught in the middle.

But such casualties are not the result of the courts upholding the state Constitution, but of the governor's leap-before-you look approach to implementing his ideas for reform.

There is much uncertainty surrounding the voucher program in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

We hope the Jindal administration, the Legislature, teachers and parents will be able to work together to find a viable solution to the precarious situation in which these young voucher program students find themselves.

But not at the expense of the hundreds of thousands of students still in Louisiana public schools.

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What We Think: Court made the right choice on voucher issue

The Louisiana Supreme Court was right last week when it upheld a lower court decision that ruled funding the state's voucher program with money from the Minimum Foundation Program was

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